Daniel Lizius, M. A.

History Department

curriculum vitae:

Ph.D. project:

From dubbing to accolade. Forms, media and methods of cultural transfer in the courtly society of the European late Middle Ages (working title)

Accolade, a Western European ‘cultural import’, replaced the traditional form of dubbing in the Holy Roman Empire from the 14th century onward. As a characteristic of courtly culture, conferring knighthood will be the key issue of the dissertation in which I will analyse the evolutionary conditions and the transformation processes as well as the specific means and methods of this characteristic’s transfer into other regions. Such a transfer is primarily assumed to have proceeded from France to the Holy Roman Empire, so that these cultural areas and Burgundy, in consideration of their particular regional specifications, mark out the geographical frame.

Dubbing and accolade designate rituals that promote a person to the rank of knight (miles), thus effecting and communicating a social rise. This ritual, which consists of several elements, changed over the course of time: from the Roman handing over of a belt, the German girding with weapons and the Christian blessing of the sword to the short accolade. The regional transfer of these transformation processes into other cultural areas in particular promises to shed light on the communication structures among the gentry across “boundaries”.

The rites de passage and new insights into the dynamics of the rituals will be taken into account, and a comparison to ecclesiastical rituals will be drawn. Appointment rituals are to be considered as possible influences here. The issue will also be approached through an analysis of the semantic aspects. Other characteristics of the courtly culture such as feasts, tournaments, hunts and its being adopted by other cultural areas illustrate in particular the transformation and the transfer; these phenomena, therefore, will at the same time be drawn on in order to be able to better contextualise the change of the conferring of knighthood.

Likewise, the gentry as the medium of transfer needs to be examined more closely and identified as a social group to make the mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion which are operative at the conferring of knighthood more palpable. Biographies of individuals who can be seen to be agents as well as their kinships and occasionally supra-regional relations will be focused on.

The dissertation has an interdisciplinary design. Its starting point are questions from cultural and social history and from the history of mentality, and it also incorporates both ethnological and anthropological findings of ritual research and approaches from the study of medieval literature. For this purpose, not only historiographical and archival but also literary and pictorial evidence will serve as a source. The dissertation aims to depict in a differentiated manner the chivalrous and courtly culture, its regional characteristics and its changes, initiated by transfer.

Research interests:

• Symbolic communication in the pre-modern era
• Cultural comparison and cultural transfer
• Cultural and social history and history of mentality of the Middle Ages

Function within the cluster/Membership in projects and groups:

• Member of the study group Comparison and Transfer
• Coordinator of the study group Inbetween Facts and Fiction

Courses:

• Winter term 2010/11 (together with Merle Schütte and Kristina Rzehak): „Zwischen Fakten und Fiktionen. Literatur und Geschichtsschreibung in Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit“, WWU Münster, Germanistisches Institut / Historisches Seminar

Conference Organisation:

• Interdisciplinary workshop „Zwischen Fakten und Fiktionen. Literatur und Geschichtsschreibung in der Vormoderne“, Münster, 16.-17.02.2011  (together with Merle Schütte and Kristina Rzehak)

Conference contributions:

• Tag der Graduiertenschule (Münster): "er ist nû volleclîche ein man" - Die Ritterpromotion als mittelalterliches Initiationsritual (20.04.2010)
• Neues aus dem Mittelalter. 4. Mannheim-Heidelberger Nachwuchsgespräche (Mannheim): Von der Schwertleite zum Ritterschlag – Ritterliche Initiationsrituale im Wandel (11.06.2010)
• Forschungskolloquium 800-1800 (Münster): Die Ritterpromotion im Mittelalter. Formen, Funktionen und Wandlungsbedingungen (19.01.2011)

Contact

Supervisor

Mentor

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